~ A dialogue of faith

Monthly Archives: March 2012

As I travel from church to church, I am coming to the sad and sobering realization that Christians in America are living in a state of spiritual apathy. We are so preoccupied with this life and self that we are neglecting the fact that there is a life to come. We seem to have forgotten that we will give an account in that life for the works done in this one, whether good or bad.

2 Corinthians 5:10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”

We don’t really believe Jesus is coming soon. We might believe it prophetically speaking, but certainly not practically speaking. If we really believed Jesus’ return was imminent, it would change the way we live today! We would be careful what we watch on television or at the movies, what we say, what we look at on the internet, who we associate with, what we wear, how we treat others, not to mention how we treat God himself.

We think we will have plenty of time later to begin a prayer life, or to read and study the Word of God, or to begin living holy lives, or to witness to our neighbor. Many of us are like the servant who lived foolishly and selfishly because he said in his heart in Luke 12:45, “My lord delayeth his coming”.

I would like to challenge everyone who reads this to stop what you are doing and right now, in this moment, ask yourself if you are living in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ.

Luke 12:40, “Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.”

1 John 2:28, “And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.”

Recently, I went into a pharmacy to pick up a few things and was once again reminded of the lack of professionalism found in many Big Brand Stores. Checking out at the register, I was neither greeted with the standard “Hello”, “How are you today?”, or “Did you find everything alright?”. After my change was given, the cashier handed me my receipt without the courtesy of either a simple “Thank you” or “Have a good day.” I don’t know about you, but I always thought the customer was king. Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t my shopping in his place of employment ensure his paycheck? Shouldn’t that make him grateful that I came in to do business? Doesn’t that warrant a sincere gesture of gratitude, however small it might be? Or am I overreacting? Am I just being self-centered, asking for more than I feel I deserve? Should I just stay quiet and be happy the store was there to service my needs? Have we come so far that to expect any kind of courtesy, professionalism or customer service is expecting too much? Is the store there for me or am I here for the store?

If I were a betting man, I would wager that every person reading this empathized with me to some degree. We have all been annoyed by either a lack of, or at the very least, poor customer service. It is right to expect professional courtesy in a country where the consumer has many choices. I walked out of that store determined I was not going to do business with them again. I can afford not to since there are a host of other pharmacies in the area.

But professionalism and courtesy should not be limited or restricted to a place of business. As a child of God, I am a living, breathing, walking, talking representative of Jesus Christ and Christianity. If I want people to “buy into” Christianity, then I must display the character traits of Christ. I must live in a manner that is consistent with biblical Christianity. I know that some people don’t like to use the term “marketing” when it comes to Christianity, but like it or not, we are walking billboards for Christ. Paul said we are living letters, read of all men. Every person is a spiritual consumer, looking for their needs to be met. They will go somewhere or to someone to fulfill that need. We can’t afford to offer poor or non-existent “customer service” when it comes to Christianity. We get but one opportunity to make a good first impression. Are we making it count? What does my customer service say about Christianity? Am I saying by my actions, “You are here for me”, or am I saying, “I am here for you.”? Let’s give folks a reason to come back.

I just read the seventeenth chapter of Exodus and can’t help but to shake my head in disbelief at Israel’s display of ingratitude through their incessant murmuring and complaining, especially when considering the fact that God was constantly proving himself by way of miracles performed on their behalf. But just about the time I’m feeling all pious and self righteous, the Holy Spirit convinces me that, had I been in that same situation, I undoubtedly would have followed the crowd, rather than the cloud.

I don’t like to admit my own shortcomings, but there is no denying that I’ve regularly caught myself complaining about the very things God said he would provide if I would just follow Him. How can I be so judgmental and condemning of the Old Testament Israelites when this New Testament saint is just as wretched? They witnessed the ten plagues upon Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, the manna from heaven, and water from the rock. I’ve witnessed hundreds of lives supernaturally changed by the amazing power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I’ve seen drunkards become respectable citizens, and not so virtuous women become saintly keepers of the faith. I watched as sons and daughters embraced a parent for the first time as a loving Mom or Dad. I’ve seen miracles on as equal a plane as the Old Testament saints when you think of it in terms of eternity! And yet, just like them, I am guilty of whining, murmuring, and complaining.

But do you know what amazes me more than the humanity of the Israelites and the blatant exhibit of my own carnality? You probably guessed it; the longsuffering and forgiveness of God. The Psalmist nailed it over and over by singing “O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth forever!”

No one likes to be around people with negative attitudes. Take a few minutes right now and determine that today, rather than whine, murmur, or complain, you are going to maintain a positive attitude and be a blessing to someone. Today, determine that you are going to follow the cloud rather than the crowd!

As I said when I began this particular blog, sometimes I would simply share some thoughts I felt were worth sharing from my morning devotions and other times I would post some issues or comments and would like to know your opinion or, if you have no differing opinion, your comments.

I came across this particular article while going through my rss feeds and thought it too good not to share.

disclaimer: I don’t put a blanket endorsement on the website, but this article is worth reading.

To hear one speak of the liberal church today as progressive implies the conservative church is non-progressive, or at worst, degressive.

If I say I pastor a progressive church, the conservatives would immediately place me in the category of liberal because the liberals have adopted the term “progressive” to describe themselves. But just because a church is liberal does not necessarily mean it’s progressive, and a church that is progressive is not necessarily liberal.

A person, a company, an organization, or a church can be considered progressive if it is reaching its own predetermined goals. It is only when that person, company, organization, or church chooses to maintain status quo that it can be considered and labeled as non-progressive. If it begins to slip into declension, then we can say it is degressive.

The liberal churches in America have applied one small part of the definition of the word “progressive” to themselves, and in doing so have relegated the term non-progressive to the conservative Christian churches.

According to Dictionary.com, the definition of the word “Progressive” is as follows:

adjective

1.favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are, especially in political matters: a progressive mayor.

4.( initial capital letter ) of or pertaining to any of the Progressive parties in politics.

5.going forward or onward; passing successively from one member of a series to the next; proceeding step by step.

And according to Merriam-Webster dictionary: Progressive means:

1 a: of, relating to, or characterized by progressb: making use of or interested in new ideas, findings, or opportunities c: of, relating to, or constituting an educational theory marked by emphasis on the individual child, informality of classroom procedure, and encouragement of self-expression

To say all liberal churches are progressive and all conservative churches are non-progressive is to limit the definition of the word and to unfairly judge or praise each group. I personally know of many conservative churches which are very progressive. And, sadly, I know of many which are non-progressive and, even sadder, some that are in degression.

If my goal as a pastor is to inspire a group of believers to live consecrated, separated lives and to embrace a Christian worldview, then I can claim to be progressive if I am indeed obtaining that objective. That label would not change simply because I prefer conservative music in my services or wear a suit while preaching from the King James Bible. If, on the other hand, I reach a certain point and have no desire to go any further, then I would be non-progressive, and if I were the kind of pastor who refuses to embrace technology, viewing it all as the work of Satan, and fights to hold on to “the way it used to be”, then I could correctly be labeled as degressive. And the same could be said of liberal churches from their perspective.

Lest my motives for writing this be misconstrued, let me assure you that I have no illusions of grandeur. I do not believe there is anything I can do to make the gospel message more palatable to a God hating, Christ loathing, self-centered, sin loving world. It is pure foolishness to believe one could repackage the gospel in such a way as to make the world accept it.

So, what do I hope to accomplish by writing this? My only objective is to try to get Christians to think. The liberals did not label the conservatives as non-progressive by adopting the term progressive. We did that to ourselves. Normally, I would have blamed our society or culture because typically culture functions in such a way that when one group is called one thing, then the antithesis of that group will be subconsciously and automatically labeled as its opposite. But that is not what has happened here. We are so worried about being identified with or as those with whom we disagree doctrinally that we immediately label ourselves the opposite of what our opposites are labeling themselves. For example, when the Pentecostals and tongue speaking churches began calling themselves charismatic, we were quick to label ourselves as non-charismatic. The problem is there were some good Baptist churches which were and still are very charismatic. Just because they don’t speak in “tongues” or believe in “faith healing” doesn’t mean they are not charismatic. And just because a group does believe and practice those things does not mean they are charismatic. But now, because we were quick to label ourselves as non-charismatic, we have become, at least in the minds of those outside our ranks, its extreme antithesis, i.e. we are dead, non-spirit filled (that term itself needs clarifying) churches. I see the same thing happening today. We are so afraid of being identified as liberal, we immediately label ourselves the exact opposite of what they are labeling themselves, and in so doing become the antithesis or exact opposite of them in the minds of those outside looking in. In this case, it is progressive verses non-progressive.

I might get some negative feedback from this but I’ve always taken pride in the fact that I am a charismatic preacher who pastors a progressive church. I know many conservative Baptist pastors who would say the same thing about themselves, just not publicly. And I understand. The damage has already been done so why shoot myself in the foot? Society is what it is. And society will label us without our help. That has been the case throughout history. The next time someone asks you if you are a progressive church, tell them the truth based upon whether or not you are reaching your goals and moving forward. The next time someone asks you if you are charismatic (which is almost a non-existent label today), tell them the truth based upon your personality in the pulpit.

I’m going to live for Jesus within the context of my biblical conservative values and Christian worldview. I’m going to try to win as many people to Christ as I can through door to door soul winning, by being a personal witness, by relationship building, by pulpit preaching, through any and all technological means at my disposal, and by any other means I can without violating Scripture and my conscience. I’m going to pastor the people God has entrusted to me in a manner that I hope is pleasing to Him alone. And if the guy across the street decides to repackage church and the gospel in an attempt to make Christianity palatable to a lost world, that’s his business and between him and God. I’m not going to try to out market him and I’m certainly not going to fear being identified with him. I’ll keep doing my thing and just let the world label me as they see fit. That is fine with me as long as I know when it’s all over, I’ll hear “Well done, good and faithful servant.” That is the only label I truly covet!

The more I travel from church to church, the more I am amazed at how many Christians dismiss the clear teachings found in the Bible regarding personal holiness and Christ likeness. Some will say, “It’s a matter of interpretation.” Ok. Let’s interpret a couple of verses from Romans chapter six. The entire chapter deals with the subject of personal holiness and Christ likeness, but we will only look at one passage.

Romans 6:21-22 “What fruit had you then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.”

First, Paul calls the believer a servant. If you read the entire chapter you will see that people are servants even before they are saved, but they serve a different master – sin. Once a person is saved, ownership changes and he now serves Christ. A servant serves. A servant performs. A servant does.

Second, the passage above says the servant’s actions yielded fruit. Fruit is a visible and tangible manifestation. Literally speaking, fruit is the outward manifestation of the inward work of the tree or plant. This passage clearly says that the outward fruit of the servant who is owned by God should be holiness as a result of the inward work of the Holy Spirit. My fruit reveals to the world what is going on inside of me and, consequently, whom I serve. What does your fruit say about you?

Leave a line or two or three about how changing masters changed your life.

Today, while reading in Deuteronomy, I was reminded of the fact that I need to regularly make a conscious effort to remember God’s blessings upon me, lest I should take them for granted and forget Him. Could we really forget such a benevolent God? Could we ever turn our backs on the God who loved us enough to veil himself in flesh and die for his own creation? Well, could we?

Moses spends the first several chapters of Deuteronomy rehearsing God’s goodness to the Israelites and reminding them of their rebelliousness in spite of those blessings. He then tells them of the blessings which await them in Canaan, and in chapter 6 verse 12, he says “Then beware lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the Land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.” But they did forget, and we know how that turned out for the Jews!

Today, I remind myself of the blessing of ministry just as the Apostle Paul did in 1 Timothy 1:12, where he says, “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.” Wow! I actually get to preach the Word of God and lead people to faith in Christ for a living! I honestly believe I would have to take a step down to accept the presidency of the United States. If I had one thousand lives to live, I would want to spend them all as God’s preacher! Thank you Lord for allowing me to preach the Gospel!

In as short or as long a reply as you would like, share what blessing God reminded you of today!

I started another blog because I didn’t want to lose focus for my church plant blog by interjecting these discussions into it. My Corpus Christi blog is meant to strictly chronicle (in one fashion or another) the church plant from deputation till whenever. This blog, however, I would like to use as a means of encouragement, inspiration and dialogue. There will be some days when I simply post a thought the Lord gave me in my devotion or study time, while other days I would like to extrapolate your thoughts or opinions regarding certain issues within the Christian life.

Please take note that it is not my intention for this to be a platform for condemning other Christians or churches. That is not my goal, and if any discussion begins leaning that direction, I will immediately cancel that particular discussion or at the very least that particular post. But I respectfully welcome your opinions and thoughts on any topic presented, even if they differ from mine.

Please refrain from using any profanity whatsoever or I will delete you and then block you from commenting on any future posts.

With that being said, here is my first topic in the form of a question:

WHAT CONSCIOUS STEPS DO YOU TAKE ON A DAILY BASIS TO KEEP FROM SINNING AGAINST GOD?

For me, I have to make a conscious effort to think on the omnipresence of God. I need to remind myself every day that no matter where I am and what I am doing, God is ever present. He is not off in space some millions oflight years away, but is within my very being in the person of His blessed Holy Spirit. I ask God to help me consciously walk in the awareness of His presence every single day. You know what? Even then, I can be half way through my day and so caught up in doing my own thing that I forget Him and, lo and behold, I find myself in sin, and I must immediately confess and repent and get my heart back in tune.

What is your habit that keeps you right with God?

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